212 FLIPPY. 



means to be disobedient ; indeed, he usually obeys mo vei y 

 well when he has a little time to think." 



So it was all arranged, and Mr. and Mrs. Gray, leaving 

 Flippy with Lawrence and John, went away. 



Pretty soon Lawrence and the two boys rose from their 

 seats and began to walk slowly along on their way to the 

 Palais Royal,* where they were to have their breakfast. 

 As soon as they commenced their walk, John asked Law- 

 rence to go on with what he had begun to say about illu- 

 sions. 



" He is showing me that there is no green in the grass," 

 said John. 



"He can't make me believe that," said Flippy; "I know 

 there is green in the grass, for I can see it. Look there !" 

 he added, pointing triumphantly to a beautiful green grass- 

 plot which they were just passing. 



Now Flippy was perfectly right in saying that he could 

 see the green color of the grass. We all see it. But the 

 question is, what is the precise meaning, in a philosophical 

 sense, of seeing any thing. It means that a sensation is 

 produced in our minds through the organ of the eye a 

 sensation, namely, of color the cause of which is in the 

 outward object, while there is, however, no sensation of 

 color in the outward object itself, but only a mysterious 

 something which causes the sensation in us. 



"Do you think there is any prick, such as you feel, in 

 the point of a pin ?" asked Lawrence. 



" It pricks me, at any rate," said Flippy. 



"Yes," replied Lawrence ; "or, as we say philosophically, 

 it causes a pricking sensation in you, but there is no such 

 sensation in the point of the pin ; there is only that in it 

 which produces the sensation in you. It is much the same 

 with what we see. Greenness, as a sensation or perception, 

 * Pronounced Pallay llwoyall. 



